A 14-year-old girl died two days after she was left alone on a secure ward at Huntercombe Hospital (also known as Taplow Manor) in Maidenhead, Berkshire, while she was supposed to be under constant one-to-one supervision. An inquest heard that the agency support worker assigned to watch her had obtained the job using a false identity and left the UK for Ghana shortly after the incident.
Assistant Coroner Ian Wade told jurors the teenager, Ruth Szymankiewicz, had been placed on continuous observation following an earlier incident of self-harm. On the evening of 12 February 2022, the worker ended his shift at 8pm “without making sure that he handed her over” and “simply left,” the inquest was told. Ruth was later found unresponsive; she died at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford on 14 February 2022 from hypoxic-ischaemic brain injury.
Police later discovered the man had used the name “Ebo Acheampong”, supported by false documents, to obtain the role via a healthcare agency. CCTV shown to the jury indicated Ruth was left unobserved for around 15 minutes. Officers said the man flew from Heathrow to Ghana five days after the incident and has not been extradited.
Ruth’s parents criticised the hospital’s standards of care and the distance from their Wiltshire home. Huntercombe Hospital, previously run by Active Care Group, had received poor Care Quality Commission ratings and has since closed. The inquest continues this month at Buckinghamshire Coroner’s Court.
Credit to original publisher: Story based on reporting by the Daily Express (UK). Additional details corroborated by The Guardian and the Slough Express.
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